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HEALTHBEAT SHOW NOTES .... Episode #79 - Recorded January 12, 2007

Hello and welcome to this week’s edition of HealthBeat, Chiropractic OnLine Today’s Health, News and informational Podcast.

In this week’s news:  We’ll Look At –  

• Disc Cysts

• Insurance and Malpractice

• Change in Low Back Pain Paradigm

• Be Careful Even with Low Fat Foods

• Breathing Problems in Large Cities

• And Finally Health Corner looks at the future direction of Healthcare in the United States

For HealthBeat, This is Dr. Todd Eglow.

Welcome to HealthBeat Podcast #79, recorded January 12, 2007.  HealthBeat is Chiropractic OnLine Today’s radio program, providing current news and commentary about Chiropractic and Health.

This week’s Episode is sponsored by DaVinci Laboratories.  Please surf to our web site at www.ChiropracticRadio.com and click on the DaVinci link for your Health and Nutritional needs.

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And Now for some news ….

Disc Cysts

A study in the August 2006 issue of the Journal of Orthopedic Surgery, describes a case history involving a Lumbar Disc Cyst.

According to the study’s abstract - A disc cyst is a rare entity with a clinical presentation that closely mimics an intervertebral disc herniation. 

Disc cysts are ventrally located, intraspinal, extradural cystic lesions that communicate with the parent intervertebral disc through a ruptured annulus. The study presents the clinical features, magnetic resonance imaging, intra-operative and histopathological findings of a variant of a lumbar intervertebral disc cyst in a 13-year-old girl who presented with a 6-month history of unilateral radiculopathy following an injury.

Magnetic resonance imaging revealed a large posterocentral, fluid-filled cyst occupying the L5-S1 interspace and bulging into the spinal canal. The cyst was confined within an intact bulging annulus fibrosis and extended directly from the parent disc. The cyst was surgically decompressed, resulting in complete symptomatic relief.

Surf to our Show Notes for an Adobe Acrobat link to this study – Click Here

Insurance and Malpractice

According to the news site, Law.com, firms Could Be Sued for Failing to Probe Insurance.

According to the news item, a law firm hired by an insurance company to defend an injury claim could face liability for malpractice if it fails to investigate whether a defendant has excess insurance coverage, a divided New York appeals court has ruled.

The first-impression ruling came in a malpractice claim against Wilson Elser Moskowitz Edelman & Dicker.

In a dissent, Justice Robert A. Lifson said the majority "would impose a duty on lawyers that has heretofore not been recognized by any court in this State."

Surf to www.law.com and do a search on malpractice for more information about this story.

Change in Low Back Pain Paradigm

According to the Orthopedic Web Site – www.orthosupersite.com, Low back pain and the related time lost from work remain a huge problem in Europe and throughout the world. As some European projects now suggest, however, guidelines and media campaigns that encourage patients to remain active can lead to a more rapid return to work.

One fundamental way to address the overall problem of back-pain-related work loss, is to have the medical community, according to the article, lead a cultural shift and present low back pain as a common health problem.

By presenting low back pain to the public in the same spirit as any common health problem, surgeons may be encouraging back-pain patients to return to work sooner.  The article describes recent research and evidence to support this cultural shift in allopathic ideology.

In the United Kingdom, researchers recently began a controlled trial comparing typical management to an experimental setting. In the experimental setting, occupational health nurses made early contact with workers and invited them into the workplace for a psychosocial assessment.

During the assessment, the nurses identified patients’ recovery obstacles and tried to overcome them using cognitive behavioral theory (CBT) principles and evidence-based information and advice. Most importantly, the nurses worked with family doctors and team leaders during the assessment, Burton said.

Patients who received the intervention package had 40% less return-to-work time and 50% lower risk for future work loss compared to those in the control group.

This evidence proves, according to the article, that a cultural shift is possible, but all players – including health care professionals, employers and patients – need to follow an established set of strategies.  The article references some European guidelines such as the COST (European Cooperation in the Field of Scientific and Technical Research) Action B13 guidelines, to overcome some common obstacles.

Listeners of COT’s HealthBeat have been keeping up with the Council on Chiropractic Guidelines and Practice Parameters attempt to create an equitable chiropractic practice document.

The article went on to discuss the COST Action B13 Guidelines, stating that overall, they came to similar conclusions: physical exercise could reduce sick leave time, occurrence and duration of future episodes. They also found that providing information and education promoting activity and improving coping could also encourage a positive shift in beliefs on low back pain.

The working group on acute low back pain developed recommendations for treatment, which, in part, encouraged physical activity and discouraged bed rest.

Surf to our Show Notes for links to both the referenced article and to the European Back Pain guidelines - http://www.orthosupersite.com/default.asp?page=view&rid=19446

www.backpaineurope.org

Be Careful Even with Low Fat Foods

The skinny on fat is simple enough: Americans eat too much of it, and as a result, wear too much of it.

Today we're eating fewer fatty meats, whole dairy products and other foods rich in saturated fats — the kind that most significantly raise cholesterol, clog arteries and contribute to increased rates of the heart disease that claims one American every 33 seconds. In fact, Americans are consuming a noticeable 18 percent fewer calories from fat than we did 20 years ago. But as a nation, we're actually getting fatter and eating more overall calories than ever before.

One reason might be our reliance on "low-fat" and "fat-free" labels. Today, nine in 10 Americans regularly buy lower-fat versions of food products, which sometimes contain more calories (albeit fewer fat calories) than the original versions.

Problem 1: Less fat can mean more calories.
Some "no-fat" or "low-fat" products contain as many calories as their original versions per serving; a handful can even have a few calories more. Many people consume larger quantities of low-fat foods, believing that they are "healthier."  So it's important to read the entire food label, not just the information on fat.

Problem 2: Oils that foil your cholesterol-lowering attempts.
More calories aren't the only concern in low-fat foods. Because of the ingredients in these products, they can raise blood cholesterol levels as much as fattier versions and may have an even more detrimental effect on blood lipids in some people. That's because these lower-fat versions may contain oils that undergo a chemical process known as "hydrogenation," in which a liquid vegetable oil that's naturally high in unsaturated fatty acids (and therefore heart-healthier) is transformed to a more solid and saturated form.

But this hydrogenation changes oil in two ways: Besides making oils more saturated, it creates trans fatty acids — molecules that get twisted and out of shape during heating. These trans fats can raise the levels of low-density lipoproteins (LDLs), the so-called "bad" cholesterol, sometimes as much as saturated fats do in some people. Meanwhile, trans fatty acids do not increase levels of high-density lipoproteins (HDLs), the "good" cholesterol that is responsive to monounsaturated fatty acids.  And some studies suggest that the chemical change induced in fatty acids by hydrogenation also may affect cell function, thereby increasing the risk of cancer.

Read The Label - Besides checking for calorie count, look at the list of ingredients on snack foods and other baked goods. The words "may contain hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated oils".  If the nutrition label lists hydrogenated oils among the first three ingredients, you're better off with a substitute, but not one containing a saturated fat such as palm kernel or coconut oil.

As always, COT’s HealthBeat recommends discussing any Nutritional concerns or questions with a qualified healthcare professional.

For more information, surf to our Show Notes - http://www.intelihealth.com/IH/ihtIH/EMIHC277/24479/48265/152287.html?d=dmtContent

Breathing Problems in Urban Areas

The closer people live to a main road, the more likely they are to suffer from respiratory symptoms such as breathlessness and wheezing, a new study from Switzerland shows.

"These findings from a general population provide strong confirmation that living near busy streets leads to adverse respiratory health effects.

While outdoor air pollution -- especially tiny particles that can be breathed deep into the lungs--is known to be hazardous to people's health, to date researchers have not looked at how proximity to main roads affects respiratory symptoms in a general population.

People's risk of having attacks of breathlessness increased by 13% for every 500-meter segments of main street located within 200 meters of their home. The risk of such attacks among people who had never smoked fell by 12% for each additional 100 meters between their homes and a main street.

Individuals whose homes were within 20 meters of a busy road were 15% more likely to regularly have phlegm in their breathing passages, while they were 34% more likely to have wheezing with breathing problems.

The effects of living near main streets were weaker in 2002 than in 1991, which may have been due to stricter requirements on auto emissions, the researchers note.

For more information, surf to our Show Notes - http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=healthNews&storyid=2006-12-27T182404Z_01_EIC764905_RTRUKOC_0_US-BREATHING-PROBLEMS.xml&src=rss

http://aje.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/164/12/1190

Health Corner –In this edition of HealthBeat’s Health Corner, we present a story from the New England Journal of Medicine.

With 2007 comes new leadership for the US Congress.  As such, possible changes in the direction of Healthcare may be undertaken.

As always, please surf to our Podcast Show Notes at ChiropractiRadio.com for a full listing of web references mentioned in today’s show.

And remember - COT’s Healthbeat always recommends discussing any nutritional or exercise lifestyle modifications with a qualified healthcare professional.

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- Ralph Waldo Emerson

For Chiropractic OnLine Today’s HealthBeat, This is Dr. Todd Eglow.

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